A hemp-fueled car scheduled to begin a record-breaking 10,000-mile trip around North America July 4 debuted Thursday in Washington at a conference devoted primarily to legalizing marijuana.

The car is a white, modified 1983 Mercedes diesel station wagon festooned with colorful hemp-related logos and the Virginia license plate "HEMPCAR." It is the creation of Grayson and Kellie Sigler, who plan to use roughly 400 gallons of hemp biodiesel during their trip. The trip will take the Siglers through 40 cities over three months, to the West Coast and then back east through Canada.

The drive should set a world distance record for a vehicle using hemp for fuel. Hemp oil converts into a biodiesel fuel fairly simply once mixed with caustic lye dissolved in methanol, a technique which makes the oil less viscous and more combustible.

"Hemp oil can be burned directly, but this is much cleaner," explained environmental defense attorney Don Wirtshafter, proprietor of the Ohio Hempery, the Athens,Ohio-based company providing the oil. "You get fuel and glycerine from the process, and the glycerine can be used to make soap or candles. We like to use potassium hydroxide as the caustic agent, because it results in a beautiful fertilizer."

Biodiesels can be made from any vegetable oil or animal fat and burn in any unmodified diesel engine. The only modification made to the hemp car was the replacement of rubber hoses with synthetic rubber tubes -- biodiesels erode rubber.

"Hemp oil has the same energy as diesel," Wirtshafter said. "Whatever your car does on diesel, it'll do on hemp. It's even possible to process hemp for a gasoline engine, but it's more complex."

When asked why one should use hemp for fuel, Wirtshafter responded, "What humanity is doing on a massive scale right now is pulling carbon out of the ground in the form of fossil fuels and spewing it out as carbon dioxide gas, adding to global warming. Biofuels, hemp included, give us the chance to grow our fuel, thereby living off the energy from the sun rather than spending our 'savings bank' of hydrocarbons. At the same time, like all plants, hemp would absorb carbon dioxide as a natural life process."

Hemp is legal in some 30 countries, including all of Europe, Canada and China. As a crop, its fiber yields textiles such as paper, cloth and rope, while its oil is used for paint, varnish, lubricants and highly nutritious food. Cultivating hemp has been illegal in the United States since 1937, because marijuana is made from hemp's flowers, buds and leaves. This ban was briefly suspended during World War II, when the United States could not import hemp fiber from the Far East for use in rope.

Hemp legalization advocates argue that the plant is ideal for biofuel use. "It yields about four times more seed oil than soybeans," Greyson Sigler said. "It grows widely in all climates with little fertilizer or pesticides needed than most crops. It's cheap, drought-resistant and very easy to cultivate. Hemp is, in my opinion, the world's most prodigious renewable resource. It could help California out with its power problems and keep the U.S. from drilling for oil in Alaska."

Sigler added that biodiesel releases 80 percent less emissions on average than gas.

"There are no sulfur byproducts, although there are slightly increased nitrogen oxide emission, most of which can be tuned out," he said. Sulfur and nitrogen oxides are pollutants and common byproducts of combustion.

While the conference at which the hemp car debuted was more focused on legalizing marijuana for responsible adult recreational use, the meeting's director, Allen St. Pierre, stressed the hemp legalization debate should expand to include the plant's industrial applications.

"It's just so hard to get beyond the giggle, the public trivialization of this," said St. Pierre, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "We call it the 'rope vs. dope debate.'"

"But I have great faith that the pragmatism of big oil companies will move legalization forward," he added. "You'll start to see a cultural eraser -- it's not the hippies in the park that are asking for it to be legal, but people who will note at least six or seven of the founding fathers were prolific hemp growers, including Jefferson and Washington."

The hemp oil used for the record-setting trip comes from Canada. Though hemp oil currently costs some $50 per gallon, Wirtshafter hopes legalization could drive the cost down in the United States to as low as pennies per gallon. "We're not going to be economical until we're able to produce hemp oil without our handcuffs on," he said.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws gave $1,000 to subsidize the hemp car and may sponsor more funds in the coming months. "We were very impressed. We thought they were very well-versed and serious-minded. They weren't full of hyperbole, and they weren't naïve -- they knew this was going to be difficult."

The Sigler's car is not the first hemp-fueled vehicle. In fact, Gatewood Galbraith, who ran for governor of Kentucky in 1991 on a pro-hemp platform, drove around in a retrofitted Mercedes Benz during his election campaign.

The Siglers expect to get a warm reception during their trip. "Most people are really happy about it," Grayson Sigler said. "We got truckers blowing their horns and people flashing their lights on the way here. We even ran into some police officers who think it's fun."

St. Pierre noted that the only distinctive side effect bystanders may experience from the car is "a funky odor. Most people who are familiar with the smell of burning seeds of marijuana will sniff and say, 'Hey, it's an odd smell.'"

When I get it on one of my pages can I name it jAHn's First Page? I'll get to it in the near future. I need to do work on my friends page and when I do I'll put it on their. I had to remove broken links or pages that were not working right. Now I need to put some back on soon.

This link:http://www.angelfire.com/art/jahn2 is a little page that I experimented with to see if I could do it. Thanks for Liking it! I drew all of the Free-hand-looking stuff my self and scanned it in. Some of the leaves are little conceptual sketches for a set of stickers that i dream of, one day, creating! I just call the Page: First Page.

I was reading through the Dictionary, just looking up some words, as I always Enjoy (go figure) doing and I came across an interesting antonym to Prohibit. It's in the Third College Edition Webster's "New World Dictionary"(1988) It's Adhibit. It means: [Rare]1 to let in; admit. 2 to affix3To Administer as a Remedy- Adhibition. It's not in the Newest Collegiate Dictionary anymore...pretty strange...anyone know any further details about this? Also: How do words like Niggard, Niggle, and Niggles become words without checking for sensitivity within the American population? Any more doubts that Rich, Niggardly, Englishmen (Europeans) are Running the Dictionary, which in turn Propagandizes Your Mind and mine? This Kountry is full of Unanswered Questions...

I have been talking to the person responsible for answering sponsorship information and the cost of sponsorship is high which is $5,000 but I understand why because this isn't going to be cheap to do. He said because of all the good work we are doing and how we have helped promote the Hemp Car here at Cannabis News that he will do some art work and put us on the car! Isn't that great? I will post the address tomorrow in this thread for any that want to contribute. We will help as best we can and thank you for the idea and the results are just more then wonderful.

The web site I gave has been busy and I have not been able to get thru. The Viriual National Bioenergy Center. www.nrel.gov/hotstuff/press/41bioenergy.html and www.eren.doe.gov/bioenergy_initiative/page1.html

Governors Ethanol CoalitionPO Box 95085Lincon, NE 68509Phone 402-471-2867Faz 402-471-3064email energy@mail.state.ne.usAsk for Ethanol Alert to be sent to you

I think this is great that FoM is getting this much support !! I know of internet groups that are gathering at hotels for weekends several times a year. It would be awsome for us all to do that. Maybe we could plan a gathering to coincide with the NORML Conference next year in D.C. . I have been to two gatherings of people from the net one was in Chicago and the other in Indy. These were chat groups not the 420 kind just chat groups but it was awsome we packed the hotel about 500 people showed up over the weekend. We had name tags with our chat names a dj catered in food.

If anyone is looking for info on Ethanol please see Ethanol Alert. www.ethanol-gec.org The Ethanol Alert is published by the Governors Ethanol Coalition, A bipartisan group of 25 member states along with Brazil, Canada, Mexico and Sweden. The Coalition's goal is to promote ethanol as the best alternative for a cleaner environment and stronger economy. "Cellusose comoprises nearly half of the dry weight of most plant metarial. (Hemp 77%) Its breakdown to component sugars and subsequent fermentation is central to the U.S Department of Energy 's and NREL" National Renewable Energy Laboratory 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden Colorado 80401-3393 " You get fuel and glycerine from the process, and the glycerine can be used to make soap or candles." This byproduct is also used to make a deiceing agent that does not poison ground water when sprayed on aircraft in the winter. It is used in antifreeze that does not hurt the envionment.

You've got my $25 towards cannabisnews.com sponsorship of the HempCar. I've wanted to do something like this, but just don't have the time or facilities. This project gets me all tingly (I'm an engineer). Now just imagine how green this would be in a hybrid 4 cylinder diesel/electric vehicle with Hemp fiber/resin plastic body panels. Hmmm...

I read your suggestions and this is a good idea. Let me think how we could help and I'll throw out any ideas when I get one or more. I am listening to NORML's Conference so I can't move around the Net freely with my slow isp but later on today I'll try to think of something.

If cannabisnews.com sponsors the hemp car I will make a contribution. What do you all think? I think it's a great idea. The only thing stopping hemp oil for energy on a vast scale are the oil companies and the DEA. Think about it: we can stop putting carbon dioxide in the air (which had been stored in the ground for literally millions of years until we dug it up) and instead draw CO2 OUT of the air with hemp. Some will go back in the form of combustion, some will remain on the ground or will be converted to fiber and paper. It WILL save the planet. Knowing this, how can any caring, rationally, human being who actually enjoys being alive and breathing clean air back the DEA and oil companies on this nonsense?4/20

The Hemp Car needs sponsers, they will display sponsers name or in this case the Web site. How can we make this happen, thousands will see this car all over the country. With the world getting news of the car also. FOM if you are a sponser I will send you a 25$ money order who else will?

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